My name is Corrie Alexander, and I’m a thirty-something Canuck living in Ontario.

I’m what you’d recognize as a textbook homebody. I work from home. I eat at home. I exercise at home. I seldom leave the house save for exercise and errands.

And that was before quarantining was cool.

Like most introverts, it’s not that I don’t like people or going to social functions, but I can only do them so often and have to mentally prepare myself in advance. They’re just exhausting somehow.

Maybe it’s because I find it really difficult to put myself out there in person…

Ask me who my favorite celebrities are, and you’ll get a very, very short list. I’m just the kind of person who fangirls. Because, for the most part, I just see celebs as mere mortals like the rest of us — just particularly well-known mortals.

As a result, there are only two public figures that I geek out about, and one of them is Jillian Michaels. (The other is Sir Patrick Stewart, but that’s another article for another day!)

I get that Jillian is not everyone’s cup of tea. She has a very strong personality that seems to polarize people.

…

A few years back, I was curious enough about my ancestry to purchase a 23 and Me DNA kit, spit in a tube, and send it off to a lab to have it analyzed. I didn’t know much about my dad’s side of the family and wondered if the results would reveal something different about my heritage than the 10+ generations of Brits running back on my mother’s family tree.

I was almost disappointed when my results came back to show I was very, thoroughly British.

At any rate, the 23 and Me site also offered other insights into my…

Anyone who’s lost a significant amount of weight knows one thing: keeping it off can be a struggle. Life gets hectic, and when times are tough, it’s easy to slip back into old bad habits and for the pounds to creep back on.

My weight used to fluctuate a lot when I was in my late twenties and early thirties. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally reached my goal weight and actually kept it off.

But I was only able to sustain long-term weight loss by avoiding these five things.

1. Alcohol

Look, I know this one sucks…

As far as fruits go, I already had my favorites. Apples, blueberries, raspberries, and (of course) kiwis all make a daily appearance in my meals.

So for the longest time, I overlooked the wrinkled little fruit known as the date. After all, it’s dried fruit, like a raisin, which I don’t find particularly tasty unless it’s covered in chocolate.

Besides, aren’t dried fruits packed with sugar?

Then a few months ago, I picked up a tub of dates for a new recipe using them as a sweetener. I popped one in my mouth while baking and was surprised at how…

When people lament that their weight loss efforts aren’t working, I truly feel for them. I struggled with it myself for nearly a decade, failing every single diet and exercise regime I tried. Then one day, I had a lightbulb moment: my weight loss strategy wasn’t the problem — my mindset was.

Your mindset is the foundation for everything you do. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the most scientifically effective diet and workout plan in the world; if you aren’t in the right headspace, it’s not going to work.

Unfortunately, many people succumb to negative thought patterns, which hinder…

Six-pack abs have symbolized the epitome of fitness for years. And I admit that, when I first reached my goal weight last year, I was obsessed with the idea of losing that last half-inch of fat over my midsection so I too could resemble the chiseled picture of health.

But although I’ve seen gains in strength and performance since then, I never got any closer to ab nirvana. Even now — at my leanest — I have nothing close to what you would call a six-pack. …

Most people see January as the month for adopting fresh changes and new challenges. But personally, I’ve always found September to be a more transformative month. When I was a kid, it was the start of a new school year with different classes, teachers, and peers. And as an adult, it’s the month that I leave the nonchalant, laid-back days of summer behind and roll up my sleeves to finish the year strong.

One way or another, September always ends up being the month that big things happen.

This year, I thought I would embrace this historically transitional month with…